Dual booting

[Khamsin]

So, let's say my laptop comes (pre-loaded with Vista) and I decide to dual boot XP. What would I need to do (having in my hand the XP CD, but not a Vista CD)?

Also, if I install (third party) software while using one OS, will it be available on the other or will I have to install it twice so it configures itself and enters the appropriate registry entries on each OS?

[Cephius]

The easiest way is use a partitioning utility to split your hard drive, and install XP on one and Vista on the other. This helps to keep your files seperate.

Now you technically can use some programs in both OSs after installing it on one, but its a really an unpredictable thing as far as it working or not. If you don't want to have to mess with it all the time, it's best to just install it twice. Vista and XPs registry entries are obviously very similar so anything installed in the vistax86 folder should theoretically work. I've never actually done this, and from what I've heard it's spotty at best.

[Khamsin]

So I first create the partition, then put in the XP disc and tell it to install on the new partition, then how do I set it up to give me a choice at boot up, with one set to a short timeout default? I'm used to autoexec.bat and config.sys of the old days, but haven't done anything like it since before XP.

[Cephius]

You basically load XP via Vista, and Vista has no easy boot.ini anymore. I recommend using this utility to access the Vista boot options. Everything you need should be in there.

[Khamsin]

You basically load XP via Vista, and Vista has no easy boot.ini anymore. I recommend using this utility to access the Vista boot options. Everything you need should be in there.

I hope that doesn't mean I'm running Vista which is running XP. Would be funny to alt+tab between XP and other stuff running in Vista, though.

[Cephius]

You basically load XP via Vista, and Vista has no easy boot.ini anymore. I recommend using this utility to access the Vista boot options. Everything you need should be in there.

I hope that doesn't mean I'm running Vista which is running XP. Would be funny to alt+tab between XP and other stuff running in Vista, though.

No no, nothing like that. You're basically using Vista's bootloader to start XP. The XP kernel is still seperate from Vista, they're not linked or anything.

[Ikith]

There is a lot more to this than you think. The vista bootloader works a bit different to the XP one so your going to have to edit the vista loader to dual boot. There also WILL be some problems finding drivers and support. I've never dual booted vista and xp but I've dual booted Vista and Ubuntu (Grub takes over the mbr and picks up windows installs). I suggest reading up on drivers for your laptop as well as changing settings in the vista boot loader before attempting this.

But the above poster did cover the partitioning ALTHOUGH VISTA DOES NOT LIKE TO BE REPARTITIONED WITH ANY PARTITIONER! It will deny you the space even though it says you have that much free space. So you may have to reinstall vista and partition the space you want for vista then leave unallocated space for an xp install! This is actually a very common problem.

TL;DR: READ. And Vista doesn't like to be repartitioned.